Chapter 1 Aboard

A rotating gate of fiery flames abruptly expanded on the deck, and then the master of the Vanishing Fleet stepped out.

Tall, majestic, wreathed in spirit-fire, with piercing eyes—his very existence was like the embodiment of the boundless sea's dread. Wherever his gaze fell, it seemed to ignite all the flames in the mortal world.

And behind that towering figure, another elegant woman followed closely: dressed in a deep purple gown, her silver hair cascading to her waist, her features beautiful yet her complexion slightly pale. She trailed Duncan with a mysterious and graceful air, like an attendant.

Laurence felt his heart pounding, his nerves stretched to the breaking point. He watched Duncan approach, and with each step the man took, the inextinguishable spiritual flames on his own body burned ever brighter until Duncan stopped on the deck. Only then did he belatedly lower his head. "Captain."

"Your ship is not bad," Duncan said casually, then looked up, surveying the exploration ship with which he'd once had a fleeting encounter, and whose fate had been intertwined with his ever since. At the same time, a novel feeling arose within him.

Strictly speaking, this was the first time his true form had left the *Vanishing Ship* to come aboard another vessel.

But it seemed that at least when operating within the "Vanishing Fleet," the *Vanishing Ship* wouldn't have any problems due to his departure… Laurence felt a strange sensation in his heart. He couldn't quite tell whether Duncan's words were a compliment or not, so he could only awkwardly keep his head lowered. "Um, I'm glad you like it."

"Don't be so nervous. It's not like we're meeting for the first time."

Duncan nodded slightly and then said, "Many years ago, I was also an explorer. Unfortunately, my original badge was lost in the subspace."

Laurence was taken aback, hesitantly raising his head, his tense nerves relaxing slightly, his sluggish thoughts beginning to flow again. He suddenly realized that this terrifying "subspace shadow" was telling the truth. A hundred years ago... Duncan Abnomal was indeed a member of the Explorers' Association, even one of the most renowned explorers of that era.

And strictly speaking, the Explorers' Association hadn't even "removed" the ghost captain from its rolls yet—because no one had ever thought of needing to process a cancellation for a subspace shadow...

Duncan, however, didn't pay attention to Laurence's reaction or the entanglement in his expression. After confirming that the other man had relaxed a little, he casually chatted with him in a conversational tone. "Was the journey over here smooth?"

"Smooth," Laurence answered honestly, trying to make his reaction seem as normal as possible. "We set out from Frostwind Eastport, passed through the blockade set up by the Sea Fog Fleet in the outer sea. They pointed us in the right direction..."

"Yes, I instructed Tirian. The Sea Fog Fleet won't cause you any trouble." Duncan nodded, then raised his head to glance at the flagpole beside him. "Is that Anomaly 077 hanging up there?"

"Yes."

"What mistake did he make? Why is he hanging on the flagpole?"

Laurence: "...." After hesitating for several seconds, he twitched his lips. "He wanted to hang there voluntarily—he wanted to use this method to return to a sealed state, but it doesn't seem very successful."

*Why are the humanoid "anomalies" I meet so strange?* Duncan muttered, turning his head to look at Alice, who was following behind him, seemingly elegant and dignified but actually lost in thought. Then he pointed to the desiccated corpse hanging in mid-air. "Come down."

As soon as he spoke, the desiccated corpse, which had been playing dead just a second before, immediately swayed its body. With a "thump," it fell onto the deck, then scrambled to Duncan, trembling like Frankenstein's monster on its first jolt of electricity. "Cap... Captain, sailor rep... reporting for duty!"

Duncan frowned. "Do you stutter?"

"I... I'm a sailor..."

Duncan was amused by the other's reaction. He hadn't expected that one of the top hundred, intelligent anomalies would know to fear him, Captain Duncan. Then, suspiciously, he turned his head to look at Alice, who was following behind him. *Both of them are top hundred anomalies, both have the same thinking abilities as humans...*

*Why doesn't this one know how to be afraid?* Back on the *Vanishing Ship*, she was only nervous for a moment, and then quickly adapted to the environment. Now she could even fight the pots and pans on the ship.

Alice noticed the captain's gaze and immediately returned a smile that was so bright it was almost solid.

Duncan: "....."

He suddenly felt that Alice might not be adapting quickly, but simply had a slow reaction. He guessed that she was afraid for a while at the beginning, and then simply forgot about being afraid...

At the same time, Alice also noticed the desiccated corpse trembling in front of her. She thought hard, finally remembering what the captain had told her before departure, so she smiled and took the initiative to greet the other anomaly. "Hello, my name is Alice. I heard you're also an anomaly?" The sailor was slightly stunned, looking up and down at the "elegant lady" before him, who seemed no different from an ordinary human, but whose every move seemed to have a sense of incongruity.

"You too?"

"Yes," Alice said happily. "I'm 099."

The sailor scratched his head awkwardly, probably dealing with another uncontrolled anomaly in this way for the first time. "Uh... I'm 077."

Alice thought for a moment, then showed a smug look. "Then my number is bigger than yours!"

Duncan finally couldn't help but interrupt. "Anomaly numbers are assigned from the front to the back. 077 is in front of you."

Alice reacted for a moment, then miraculously understood. "Ah... so that means he's more powerful than me?"

"Not necessarily. Anomalies ranked in the top 100 are extremely strange, and their strength generally can't be judged by a simple number. Instead, they tend to present different dangers under different conditions," Duncan patiently explained. "At sea, he should be more powerful than you. On land, you're more powerful than him." But Alice didn't know how much she had understood. She just curiously sized up the "sailor" in front of her, and then suddenly reached out and grabbed something in the air. The desiccated corpse instantly froze in place, as if even his soul (if he had one) had been frozen in an instant. Then, all his joints and skin began to rapidly transform into a wooden puppet.

Alice suddenly let go.

The sailor staggered back a few steps, looking in horror at the puppet before him. "Wh... what the hell?"

"Not powerful."

Alice shook her head. "Doesn't even know how to protect his threads."

"You're not allowed to grab other people's threads casually. Did you forget?" Duncan immediately reminded her sternly, then frowned. "Wait, are you saying that Anomaly 077 also has 'threads'?"

"Yes, there are several floating on his body," Alice nodded as a matter of course. "But his threads are a bit strange—ordinary people's threads float very high into the sky and then gradually disappear, but his threads float out and then return to his body, like forming a ring..."

Duncan immediately frowned, looking up and down at the still-terrified "sailor." Then, a faint green light flashed in Alice's eyes beside him.

The next second, Duncan also saw Anomaly 077's "threads"—almost transparent white threads extending from the desiccated corpse's head and torso joints, swaying in the surrounding void and then returning to his body.

*There really are threads. Do sentient humanoid anomalies all have these "threads"? Or is this unique to Anomaly 077? What's going on with this kind of thread, different from ordinary humans, that creates a cycle within itself?* Many questions instantly surfaced in Duncan's mind, but he quickly suppressed these doubts for the time being, and apologized very seriously to the "sailor." "Sorry, Alice is a bit naive. She didn't mean any harm, she just wanted to say hello."

"No, no, no, don't apologize!"

The desiccated corpse almost jumped up on the spot, quickly waving his hands and retreating. "I'm fine, I was just startled. Alice, right? I got it, I'll stay away from her in the future..." As he spoke, he muttered to himself in a low voice, something about "No wonder she works on the flagship" and "People close to the top boss are more powerful," the sound of which even Laurence could hear.

Laurence blinked his eyes as he watched from the side. He was dumbfounded, not understanding what had just happened, only feeling that the two anomalies seemed to have "communicated" and that the sailor seemed to have been frightened again. Then, he thought of something, his gaze falling strangely on the beautiful lady with the elegant appearance. "Wait, Anomaly 099... Captain, so this is..."

"Is the coffin you escorted on your ship back then." Duncan smiled and introduced her.

"But now the coffin has been assimilated by the *Vanishing Ship*. The doll, as the 'contents,' is in a state of long-term uncontrolled behavior, just like the sailor next to you."

As soon as Alice heard this, she immediately went up to Duncan and said, "Captain, Captain, I'm not out of control. I'm usually very obedient..."

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm not out of control either," the desiccated corpse said quickly. "I'm usually very obedient to arrangements. Captain Laurence asked me to go ashore and fight cultists, and I didn't hesitate..."

Laurence listened in a daze, looking up at the "sailor" who was trying hard to show himself, and then at the "coffin filling lady" opposite him, who was beautiful and elegant but now seemed to have something wrong with her brain.

His gaze finally fell on Captain Duncan. Suddenly, the pressure and tension that had lingered for so long dissipated. Laurence inexplicably felt that the relationship between himself and the "ghost captain" in front of him had become much closer, and even... a sense of shared misfortune arose spontaneously.

It was the feeling of being a captain on the boundless sea, but having to take care of an uncontrolled anomaly with a hole in their brain...